After an incredible 70-year refereeing career, Terry Farley has blown his whistle for the final time.
The 88-year-old was due to officiate his final game at Durham University on Sunday.
However he has decided to withdraw from the game as it could be "too much of a risk" to his health.
Terry has now reflected on his incredible career which saw him travel the world and rub shoulders with footballing legends such as Bill Shankly and Diego Maradona.
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Terry, from Newton Aycliffe, said: "It's a career that I've enjoyed very much and I've been to places I would never have dreamt that I would go to.
"Portugal, Spain, Italy - places that I once only thought of as holiday resorts."
Terry began refereeing at the age of 18 after passing his referees' examination at the headquarters of the Durham Football Association on January 4, 1952.
He said: "I was playing youth football for the West Cornforth Juniors in the Durham junior league, but when I got to 18 I had to decide whether to move into senior football.
"I wasn't the best player in the world so I thought I don't fancy playing senior football. A friend of mine who was a referee at the time said to me 'why don't you take up refereeing?'.
"I said 'I don't fancy that', but he said it would keep me in the game and get me out on a Saturday afternoon so I thought 'yeah, okay' - and that's how it all started."
He added: "If anybody had said to me back then that I would go on the referee for 70 years and I would referee at Manchester United and Liverpool, as well as Hampden Park and abroad I would have said 'don't be so daft'.
"But it certainly happened and I've loved my career."
In seven decades, Terry has enjoyed an incredible career and has officiated local, national and international games.
The former driving instructor started out in local divisions and his career took off in August 1965 when he received a letter from the Football League inviting him to become a linesman, now known as an assistant referee .
His career highlights include running the line twice at Hampden Park when Scotland played Peru and Scotland played Argentina.
As well as running the line at Wembley in the FC Charity Shield, and international games such as Barcelona v Juventus.
In 1971, Terry also officiated at St James' Park for Newcastle's home match against Liverpool when the referee pulled a muscle before the game.
Newcastle won the game 3-2, with debuting player Malcolm Macdonald scoring a hat-trick.
In 2011 Terry received an MBE for services to football referees.
"That was a memorable day. My wife and two sons were there and I have photographs all over the house of Her Majesty presenting me with the medal.", Terry added.
On January 4, Terry "reluctantly" decided to retire from active refereeing.
The great-grandad-of-two said: "At 88, I felt that I couldn't do justice to refereeing football matches so it's time to hang up the whistle and hand in my notebook and pencil.
"I've had a 70-year career which has given me an awful lot of pleasure."
Friend and colleague Keith Sutherland, Secretary of Durham City Referees Association, said: "There's a slogan that referees use - service before self.
"And Terry Farley is one of those people who absolutely puts service before self.
"He's a good friend and great colleague and I've had the pleasure of working with him for many years."
